VOLUME 57 ISSUE 19 MAY 12, 2020 P39
starting point to measure his equipment against
the crop of 450cc racers also competing.
"We built it up with all the typical things that
would protect the bike—the skid pans and the
protection, that sort of thing, and outfitted it with
a Rally Kit," said Parker. "Basically, we want to go
out and prove the parts we're selling are actually
durable and improve the bike."
The motor is essentially stock, just a Power
Commander V with an auto tuner, the Rottweiler
intake system, and a full Arrow race exhaust.
Chris fitted a Rekluse torque drive clutch kit, "be-
cause it's about 15 percent more clutch material
on there," and one of his Transaver shift devices.
Chris created the Transaver to stop riders from
banging on the gear lever once they get to first
gear, inevitably doing damage to the transmis-
sion. When in first, if the rider puts excess pres-
sure on the lever, it simply gives way, rather than
putting that pressure into the gearbox. Other than
those mods, the motor is exactly as you'll find in
your KTM dealership.
"We had some issues with that bike because
basically on the other bikes you can unplug the
O2's (oxygen sensors), put dongles in there,
remap the system, and there's no engine light,
everything's fine," Parker says. "On this bike, we
couldn't defeat the engine light. It's too smart.
But on a race bike, we don't care about engine
lights. Engine lights don't really tell you anything
other than your signals are unplugged, or some-
thing like that. Anything that's serious, like oil
pressure, you're going to get a big display on
your dash. So, an engine light is not a big deal to
us. The way to defeat that is to unplug the O2s.
It makes the system blind to the emissions stuff,
and then we're able to retune it from scratch via
the Power Commander with the auto tune, which
makes the thing run really, really, hard. In stock trim,
the 790 R's a little bit lethargic. They're going to run
hot and they're going to run lean. You're missing
out on about 10 horsepower to the ground, which
we're getting back with the remapping and with the
exhaust."
The suspension is where most of the work goes.
A stock 790, while having an excellent fork de-
veloped by American Quinn Cody, would simply
not stand up to the punishment Vannieuwenhuise
dished out on the Sonora Rally, so Parker went with
(Top) The Rebel X 790
Adventure navigation tower is
flanked by Chris Parker's own
Rottweiler Performance custom
road-book holder. (Bottom)
The bottom of the fuel cell is
wrapped in the skid plate, as is
the whole undercarriage.
